Results released on three Lee Co. girls' deaths

AUBURN, AL (WSFA) - Lee County Coroner Bill Harris says results of tests conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have returned on the death investigation cases of three Lee County children.

Katherine Langford, 7, Kaylee Allison, 10, and Brianea Thomas, 7, Auburn girls died unexpectedly in June, August and November of 2008.

Harris met with Dr. Stephen Boudreau, of the Montgomery Medical Examiners Office of the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Sciences and the victims' families on Monday to discuss the results.

The consensus is that all three deaths were brought on by Myocarditis, and each death was natural.

Harris says the CDC was never able to identify any virus associated with the deaths, though he adds that doesn't mean the presence of a virus was not possible. Eight pathologists examined the cases.

The CDC pathologists and Dr. Boudreau told Harris that the deaths are highly unusual but it does happen. Nothing was found to tie the three together.

Rumors ran rampant in Lee County after news of the deaths surfaced. Harris says, "I can assure this community that there is no bacterial or infectious disease running rampant in Lee County."

Harris gave assurances to the victims' families that the cases, "will remain open on the hope that now that all of their information and data of the tests performed is in a nationwide database, should anything like this occur in the future or a new virus is detected it can be compared to their data in hopes of identifying the virus that caused their deaths. "

The coroner adds, "I only ask that everyone keep these families in their prayers and pray that someday we will have a conclusive answer to these tragic deaths," Harris added.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

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